Small Molecule X-ray Crystallography

The technique

The School operates a single crystal X-ray crystallography facility tailored for the determination of molecular structures of organic and inorganic compounds of modest molecular weight (typically less than 2000 Da).

Applications

Determination of the three-dimensional structures from single crystals.

Micro-XRD (powders) can also be examined in some cases although the UQ Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis has powder XRD instruments purpose built for this application.

This instrument may operate in either Mo or Cu mode. Most samples are analysed with the Mo X-ray source (0.71073 Å) while the Cu source (1.5418 Å) is specially suited for absolute structure determinations of light-atom chiral organic compounds. The Cu source is also particularly bright and may be useful for weakly diffracting samples.

Sample requirements

Crystals of at least 20 um in all three dimensions, ideally larger than this but no greater than 0.5 mm. Crystals larger than 0.5 mm will need to be cut down to size.